Podcasts about techstars boulder

In this episode, Colin McIntosh, founder and CEO of Sheets & Giggles, joins Andrew to tell us more about sustainable eucalyptus bedding. It's all-natural, it's cooling, it's rectangular, and it's available now!Recently ranked #309 on the Inc. 5000 list of the fastest-growing private companies in America, Sheets & Giggles has shipped nearly 200,000 units of its sustainable bedding in its first 4 years of operation. A graduate of Techstars Boulder 2019, S&G has become a mainstay in the bedding industry with its plant-based, naturally cooling mattresses, sheets, and pillows. Versus cotton, S&G's Eucalyptus Lyocell fabric uses up to 96% less water, 30% less energy, and infinity% less insecticides. (I.e., no insecticides at all; in contrast, cotton uses the harmful neonicotinoids that are killing off bee and bird populations.) Unlike petrochemical-based products like polyester sheets and foam mattresses, S&G products shed no microplastics, VOCs, or other toxic compounds.Learn more: https://sheetsgiggles.com/  -----Do you want to be interviewed for your business?  Schedule time with us, and we'll create a podcast like this for your business:  https://www.WriteForMe.io/-----https://www.facebook.com/writeforme.iohttps://www.instagram.com/writeforme.io/https://twitter.com/writeformeiohttps://www.linkedin.com/company/writeforme/ https://www.pinterest.com/andysteuer/Want to be interviewed on our Business Ninjas podcast? Schedule time with us now, and we'll make it happen right away! Check out WriteForMe, more than just a Content Agency! See the Faces Behind The Voices on our YouTube Channel!

In today's episode, we have someone who has done it all founder, funder, and now contributor to our startup ecosystem. Excited to have Elle Bruno who is the managing director of TechStars Boulder. Here's a closer look at the episode: Elle's early days as an entrepreneur Why Elle focuses her angel investing on female founders. What's changed in the world of investing in female founders. Elle's advice to founders that are struggling with challenges/disadvantages. Eliminate emotion and use data. The importance of the founder/VC relationship The quintessential element of investment is spending time with the founders. Power dynamic shift with founders and funders. Why investors and founders both need to do diligence. What brought Elle to TechStars and the imposter syndrome. The difficulty in choosing the companies for the cohorts. How TechStars has grown. What the TechStars Boulder program entails. Advice to founders thinking about applying to TechStars. What's unique about being a founder in Colorado Why do TechStars as a founder. What are you looking forward to on the personal front? Resources: TechStars Boulder Website: https://www.techstars.com/accelerators/boulder Elle Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ellebruno/ Techstars LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/techstars/ Techstars Twitter: https://twitter.com/techstars Techstars Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/techstars/ Techstars Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/techstars Techstars YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/techstarstv

In today's episode, we have someone who has done it all founder, funder, and now contributor to our startup ecosystem. Excited to have Elle Bruno who is the managing director of TechStars Boulder. Here's a closer look at the episode: Elle's early days as an entrepreneur Why Elle focuses her angel investing on female founders. What's changed in the world of investing in female founders. Elle's advice to founders that are struggling with challenges/disadvantages. Eliminate emotion and use data. The importance of the founder/VC relationship The quintessential element of investment is spending time with the founders. Power dynamic shift with founders and funders. Why investors and founders both need to do diligence. What brought Elle to TechStars and the imposter syndrome. The difficulty in choosing the companies for the cohorts. How TechStars has grown. What the TechStars Boulder program entails. Advice to founders thinking about applying to TechStars. What's unique about being a founder in Colorado Why do TechStars as a founder. What are you looking forward to on the personal front? Resources: TechStars Boulder Website: https://www.techstars.com/accelerators/boulder Elle Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ellebruno/ Techstars LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/techstars/ Techstars Twitter: https://twitter.com/techstars Techstars Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/techstars/ Techstars Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/techstars Techstars YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/techstarstv

In today's episode, we have someone who has done it all founder, funder, and now contributor to our startup ecosystem. Excited to have Elle Bruno who is the managing director of TechStars Boulder.Here's a closer look at the episode:Elle's early days as an entrepreneurWhy Elle focuses her angel investing on female founders.What's changed in the world of investing in female founders.Elle's advice to founders that are struggling with challenges/disadvantages.Eliminate emotion and use data.The importance of the founder/VC relationshipThe quintessential element of investment is spending time with the founders.Power dynamic shift with founders and funders.Why investors and founders both need to do diligence.What brought Elle to TechStars and the imposter syndrome.The difficulty in choosing the companies for the cohorts.How TechStars has grown. What the TechStars Boulder program entails.Advice to founders thinking about applying to TechStars.What's unique about being a founder in ColoradoWhy do TechStars as a founder.What are you looking forward to on the personal front?Resources:TechStars Boulder Website: https://www.techstars.com/accelerators/boulder Elle Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ellebruno/ Techstars LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/techstars/ Techstars Twitter: https://twitter.com/techstars Techstars Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/techstars/ Techstars Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/techstars Techstars YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/techstarstv 

Pour l'épisode de cette semaine, je reçois Francis Brero, le cofondateur et CPO de Madkudu. Madkudu c'est une plateforme qui permet aux équipes marketing de faire de la data science et d'équiper leurs vendeurs des bonnes informations. Au cours de cet épisode, nous avons parlé des débuts de Madkudu, de leur passage à Techstars Boulder, du bouche à oreille comme canal marketing, de l'importance du branding et aussi de la levée de fonds de $18M qu'ils viennent de boucler. Vous pouvez suivre Francis sur LinkedIn. Bonne écoute ! _____ Mentionnés pendant l'épisode : The founders - season 1 Gainsight Totango Gong Chorus Drift Segment Guillaume Cabane _____ Pour soutenir SaaS Connection en 1 minute⏱ (et 2 secondes) : Abonnez-vous à SaaS Connection sur votre plateforme préférée pour ne rater aucun épisode

Elle Bruno is the Managing Director of Techstars Boulder, an operational investor supporting entrepreneurs from idea conception to a successful business. Founded in 2006, Techstars has invested in more than 3,000 companies and today has a market cap of $75 billion. Elle is a sales expert, working for companies, including Trunk Club and Luxury Garage Sale. In 2003, She co-founded ExpressDrop.com and was the Head of Business Development. Along with her current positions, she also serves as an angel investor and advisor focusing on investing in female-founded companies. In this episode… What is the overlap between angel investing and leadership? How does one correspond to the other? While separate concepts, the two have quite a few things in common. Leadership requires wisdom, patience, tenacity, and the ability to listen to those around you. However, leadership also directly relates to angel investing. Few people know more about both subjects than Elle Bruno. She has worked as a leader at several notable companies and recently began her work in angel investing. Now she explains both sides to those who want to listen. Dov Pollack talks with Elle Bruno, the Managing Director at Techstars Boulder, on this episode of Next Wave Leadership to discuss leadership and angel investing. They begin with Elle's career and the lessons she learned from a young age. They also touch on topics such as investing in women-led startups, maintaining company culture during growth, and gender inequality in the business world.

In today's episode, Natty Zola, who is a TechStars founder travel startup EverLater. He's the former managing director of TechStars Boulder and now is an investor and partner at Matchstick Ventures. Here's a closer look at the episode: From Colorado to Maryland for a bad track team Leaving Finance to develop Everlater How travel inspired Everlater The early help with Everlater and the “give first” mindset of Colorado Access to capital in the early days Getting acquired by MapQuest Joining TechStars as the managing director How Natty's entrepreneur journey helped him succeed at TechStars What Natty loves most about being an investor The decision to leave TechStars and become a full time investor The Matchstick investment strategy Importance of collaborative investing The things Natty looks for in an investment Importance of diversity in founders How companies can be attractive for Series A and coastal capital Natty's advice during these economic times Resources: Natty's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nattyzola/ Natty's Twitter: https://twitter.com/NattyZ Matchstick website: https://www.matchstick.vc/ Matchstick LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/matchstickventures/

In today's episode, Natty Zola, who is a TechStars founder travel startup EverLater. He's the former managing director of TechStars Boulder and now is an investor and partner at Matchstick Ventures. Here's a closer look at the episode: From Colorado to Maryland for a bad track team Leaving Finance to develop Everlater How travel inspired Everlater The early help with Everlater and the “give first” mindset of Colorado Access to capital in the early days Getting acquired by MapQuest Joining TechStars as the managing director How Natty's entrepreneur journey helped him succeed at TechStars What Natty loves most about being an investor The decision to leave TechStars and become a full time investor The Matchstick investment strategy Importance of collaborative investing The things Natty looks for in an investment Importance of diversity in founders How companies can be attractive for Series A and coastal capital Natty's advice during these economic times Resources: Natty's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nattyzola/ Natty's Twitter: https://twitter.com/NattyZ Matchstick website: https://www.matchstick.vc/ Matchstick LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/matchstickventures/

Summary:In today's episode, Natty Zola, who is a TechStars founder travel startup EverLater. He's the former managing director of TechStars Boulder and now is an investor and partner at Matchstick Ventures.Here's a closer look at the episode:From Colorado to Maryland for a bad track teamLeaving Finance to develop EverlaterHow travel inspired EverlaterThe early help with Everlater and the “give first” mindset of ColoradoAccess to capital in the early daysGetting acquired by MapQuestJoining TechStars as the managing directorHow Natty's entrepreneur journey helped him succeed at TechStarsWhat Natty loves most about being an investorThe decision to leave TechStars and become a full time investorThe Matchstick investment strategyImportance of collaborative investingThe things Natty looks for in an investmentImportance of diversity in foundersHow companies can be attractive for Series A and coastal capitalNatty's advice during these economic timesResources:Natty's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nattyzola/ Natty's Twitter: https://twitter.com/NattyZ Matchstick website: https://www.matchstick.vc/  Matchstick LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/matchstickventures/ 

Learn more about Estated and JoshWe offer quick and easy access to data on 150 million residential and commercial properties nationwide across the US. We've built a database which allows users to search properties across over 3,200 counties in real time. Hundreds of customers have integrated our property data into their businesses to gain deeper insights into their clients.  Estated graduated from Techstars Boulder in 2017, which led to capital partnerships with Foundry Group and Techstars Ventures. Follow Josh on Twitter Follow Estated on Twitter Follow Estated on LinkedIn Check out Estated

Liz Giorgi is a two-time media entrepreneur who challenges the norm. She is Co-Founder and CEO of Soona, a same-day photo and video studio designed to help brands get professional content for less than the price of stock. Previously, she started Mighteor, a production company that was one of the first in the country to provide online video strategy to brands as large as Facebook and U.S. Bank. Giorgi is an Emmy award winner, advocate for women in business, and recognized by Forbes 30 Under 30.  Chapter Summaries0:42 - Introducing Liz4:54 - Creating Soona8:14 - Solving a Problem12:01 - Virtual Photo Shoot Tour15:54 - Dream to IPO17:47 - Big Mistakes & Big DreamsResource LinksSoona.coLiz Giorgi Instagram |   Liz Giorgi LinkedIn Soona LinkedIn   |   Soona Instagram   CONNECT WITH MILLION DOLLAR MONDAY!Follow us on Instagram | Follow us on YouTubeKey TakeawaysWe both just said to each other, there's something undeniable about how much more impact we could have, and we took the leap and started working on selling my first business. We applied to Techstars, which is a technology accelerator. We were accepted to Techstars Boulder. And as the ball kept rolling down the hill, we launched our product in the world. And you know, I'm incredibly proud of that decision, but boy, oh boy, it was scary.We've really decided to turn everything on its head and say, we want it to be as easy as anything else that you do online and take away all these extra decisions that distract businesses from being able to just focus on what matters the most, which is making their product look its best.And so I went about that process, very naive, but learned very quickly that it's very much about convincing people that your version of the future is going to be real.We believe we're building the fastest and most affordable way to create professional content online. We have seen data that says that as much as 97% of the purchase decision comes down to a picture. And so it is really the most important asset. I like to say, it's the equivalent of making a photographic first impression for every single one of your product.

Ep #66 - Foodom is a marketplace connecting cooks with busy people, and families for in-house healthy, and affordable meal prep.   On this episode, we are joined by the Founder of Foodom, Reneta Jenik, along with the Managing Director of Techstars Boulder, Elle Bruno. Foodom is an online marketplace connecting local vetted cooks with people that want everyday meals prepared in their own kitchen, creating healthy and tasty meals tailored to customers'​ dietary preferences and needs. Our mission is to make everyday home cooking services available and affordable for everyone and make the world a better place one meal at a time!  Learn more by visiting their website at Foodom and on Twitter.   Techstars is a worldwide network that helps entrepreneurs succeed. Founded in 2006, Techstars began with three simple ideas—entrepreneurs create the future, collaboration drives innovation, and great ideas can come from anywhere. You can visit their website for more information at Techstars.   You can visit our website here, and follow Katie and Daniel on LinkedIN. Find Pitch Please on Twitter! You can also follow DSH Accelerator on Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIN and TikTok.

This week's guest is Luke Beatty who is a partner at TCG and has been one of the fixtures of the Colorado tech ecosystem over the past 20 years. Her has a unique distinction that he successfully founded and sold two companies based in Colorado (Associated Content and BrandFolder.) and was also the managing director at Techstars Boulder. On this episode Luke shares with Adam and Chris why being a "People collector" is vital to success.Check out more about what we're up to at Range.vc Connect with hosts and the Range VC team on LinkedInSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Adam and Chris speak with Devin Tivona, a Colorado native and CO graduate who now is the Head of Travel at Coupa Software. Devon was the founder and CEO of Pana, a travel software company that went through Techstars Boulder in 2015 and subsequently raised over $15 million on its way to being successfully acquired by Coupa earlier this year. On this episode Devon shares tips for founders on how radical candor can build this type of "safe" environment and why company work culture has been so important to him, which you'll hear about in his biggest lesson.Find out more about what we're up to at range.vc and connect with Adam and Chris and the Range Ventures team on LinkedIn.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

En 2015, Andrea tenía varios estudios de zumba en Lima y su problema principal era el manejo escalable de operaciones y tareas administrativas. Estaba segura que había una forma más fácil de hacerlo y empezó a automatizar algunos de sus procesos con tecnología. Pronto se dio cuenta que este era un problema común en estudios de fitness especializados y, junto con su co-founder Alex, decidió atacarlo y explorar la oportunidad. Fitco nació a inicios de 2016 como una plataforma de suscripción para estudios de fitness que permitía automatizar operaciones, generar una relación más cercana con clientes y crecer de forma más escalable. Desde entonces, Andrea ha participado en varias aceleradoras con Fitco como Start-Up Chile, 500 Startups Latinoamérica, con la que se consolidaron en el mercado mexicano, y Techstars Boulder, en Colorado, Estados Unidos. Además, ha llevado a Fitco desde su natal Perú a otros países de la región, con enfoque en México, Chile y Colombia. Actualmente tienen más de 450 centros de fitness como clientes y en 2020 lanzaron Fitco Moves, una plataforma de suscripción que ofrece entrenamientos y planes de nutrición online para consumidores en este mundo digital. Síguenos: Instagram LinkedIn Facebook www.creandolatampodcast.com creandolatam@gmail.com

Week 53: Slack SupportFletcher Richman joins me to talk about 'decreasing the distance' to your customers with Slack, and how it gives support some personality.Fletcher was the CEO & Cofounder of Halp, acquired by Atlassian (NASDAQ:$TEAM) in May 2020. He is currently a Sr. Manager, Product for Halp at Atlassian. Fletcher received a Bachelor of Science in Electrical & Computer Engineering, Cum Laude, from The University of Colorado. As a student, Fletcher co-founded Spark Boulder, a co-working space for student entrepreneurs, which was supported by many community leaders including Brad Feld and David Cohen, the Co-Founders of Techstars. Fletcher spent several years working as the Growth Engineer for PivotDesk, a Techstars Boulder graduate, and as the Platform Manager for Galvanize Ventures, a seed-stage venture capital fund. Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/user?u=28654526)

Andrea Baba, FitCo: Digitizing Fitness Centers in Latin America, Ep 125 Andrea’s first experience as an entrepreneur was starting her own Zumba studio when she was 18 years old. Within a year of operating, she started to expand her business, hiring more instructors and gaining more clients. However, Andrea saw that managing her business solely on Excel spreadsheets and notebooks was limiting her company’s growth.    In true entrepreneurial spirit, Andrea decided to find a solution to her own problem. Together with her co-founder Alex, they set out to build a tool that would help fitness centers in Latin America to scale their businesses. And Fitco was born.    I sat down with Andrea to talk about how she combined her passion for fitness and her background in finance to start Fitco in Peru’s budding startup ecosystem. We also discuss their experience at Techstars’ Boulder Accelerator as the first LatAm startup to be accepted into the program and how Fitco has responded to the COVID-19 pandemic. Becoming Fitco’s first client Managing a Zumba studio meant that Andrea was doing everything from teaching classes to answering Whatsapp messages from clients to managing the payroll. To take the next step in her business, she needed a tool that would help her scale her business in an efficient way. After several mockups, Andrea put her product to the test and her Zumba studio became Fitco’s first paying customer.    Listen to this episode of Crossing Borders to learn about how Andrea built Fitco and found a niche in Latin America’s fitness studios. Catalysts of change in Peru’s startup ecosystem Peru’s startup ecosystem has transformed significantly over the past couple of years. Andrea recalls the early days of her startup and the struggles she faced in finding people to hire for Fitco. Today, she is proud of how far the ecosystem has come. She considers that government led initiatives have played a huge role in giving Peruvian startups the recognition and support needed to grow and attract investors to the ecosystem.   Find out more about how Peru’s startup ecosystem has transformed in this episode of Crossing Borders. First Latin American startup to participate in Techstars Boulder Accelerator program Andrea explains what it was like to be physically on the same block as Brad Feld and David Brown as the first LatAm startup to receive investment from Techstars Boulder program. There, they learned about how to continue scaling Fitco and build a great business from the experience of other founders and mentors in the US. One of their greatest takeaways was Techstars’ people driven approach. Andrea and her co-founder were inspired to bring that philosophy to their team, and focus on people first, which in turn will lead to a better business.    Learn more about Andrea’s lessons learned from her experience at Techstars Boulder program in this episode of Crossing Borders.   Andrea Baba is helping the fitness industry transform its services to meet the demands and consuming habits of today’s customers. Fitco enables fitness center owners to digitize their businesses to better connect with their communities online.   Outline of this episode: [1:50] - About Fitco [2:30] - The entrepreneurial mindset [5:00] - Solving her own problem [6:29] - Focusing on a tech tool [7:49] -  Catalysts of change in the Peruvian ecosystem [12:44] - Techstars Boulder Accelerator [17:46] - Advice for going through an accelerator [21:13] - Responding to the lockdown [24:43] - Being a female founder in Latam vs. the US [27:43] - Books, blogs, & podcast recommendations [28:52] - Advice to Andrea’s younger self [30:23] - What’s next for Fitco?   Resources & people mentioned: Andrea Baba Alexander Mayor Fitco UTEC Ventures Techstars Boulder Accelerator Brad Feld David Brown Culqi Crehana Books: Lean In: Women, Work and the Will to Lead, From Impossible to Inevitable, The Sales Acceleration Formula, Hacking Growth, Venture Deals    

Despotic ruler of the world's sheetiest startup. 1st Place Denver Startup Week 2018 | Techstars Boulder 2019 | 50 Startups to Watch in 2019 SheetsGiggles.com

DigitalOcean took on Amazon Web Services (AWS) and grew his company from a five-founder startup in the Techstars Boulder accelerator to a unicorn and highly successful cloud infrastructure provider. “Customer love” in Ben’s words — the feedback from developers that DigitalOcean met their needs in a way that AWS did not — was what kept Ben and his team going, and kept skeptical investors interested. Listen for Ben’s insights into pleasing both customers and investors, and much more.Techstars personnel and/or guests who speak in this podcast express their own opinions, and not the opinion of either Techstars or any company discussed in this podcast. This podcast is for informational purposes only, and should not be relied upon as legal, business, investment, or tax advice. You should consult your own advisers as to those matters. References to any securities are for illustrative and/or informational purposes only and do not constitute an investment recommendation or offer to provide investment advisory services. Furthermore, this content is not directed at nor intended for use by any investor or prospective investor, and may not under any circumstances be relied upon when making a decision to invest in any fund managed by Techstars. Certain of Techstars funds own (or may own in the future) securities in some of the companies discussed in this podcast. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

On this episode of the Jason Cavness Experience I talk to Taylor McLemore Managing Director of Techstars Workforce Development Accelerator cavnessHR website: https://www.cavnessHR.com Jason's email: jasoncavness@cavnessHR.com @cavnessHR  across social media @jasoncavnessHR across social media We talk about the following The idea behind Codeable. Patriot Boot Camp. The business of Techstars. When should a Founder stop? The Workforce Podcast. Accepting applications from non-profits to the next cohort. Taylor's Bio Taylor is a venture builder, scale operator, community connector, and investor. He is the Managing Director of the Techstars Workforce Development Accelerator. He supports founders building companies that enable human potential through work, investing across edtech, labor market solutions, and the future of work. Taylor was appointed by Governor Jared Polis and confirmed by the Colorado State Senate as a Public Member of the Colorado Banking Board, serving the consumer protection mission of DORA for the $56Bn+ state banking system. Previously, he was Managing Director of Able, a venture and product studio.  Taylor was responsible for Able's new venture and investing practice and all finance, legal, operations, and human resources functions for three offices on two continents while the company achieved 15x+ growth. While at Able, he was a co-founder and investment lead for Codeable, a coding school in Latin America. Taylor is the Founder and a Board Director of Patriot Boot Camp, a nonprofit built in partnership with Techstars and Governor Jared Polis. Patriot Boot Camp programs have worked with more than 1,000 military veteran and military spouse entrepreneurs to build technology companies of impact and scale. These companies have raised more than $110 million in venture capital and created more than 2,000 jobs. Previously, Taylor co-founded and was CEO of Prediculous, a social gaming company that participated in the 2013 cohort of Techstars Boulder.  Prior to that, Taylor worked in investment banking assisting in the arrangement of more than $12 billion in financing for leveraged buyouts, acquisitions, and other corporate transactions. Taylor worked as a Vice President at Bank of America analyzing the more than $500 million of annual real estate occupancy expense for the Global Operations Council. Also while at Bank of America, he worked on the MBNA, Countrywide, and Merrill Lynch merger integrations.  Early in his career he was a venture capital analyst and hedge fund analyst. He graduated Magna Cum Laude with a Bachelor of Arts in Economics and Spanish, Phi Beta Kappa from Davidson College. During his undergraduate work, he studied at Universidad de San Lorenzo in Madrid, Spain. Taylor received the Kemp Scholar at Davidson College and studied the Adaptive Market Hypothesis and Efficient Market Hypothesis in Chile and Argentina.  Techstars Workforce Development Accelerator Applications for Non-Profits Information on applying as a non-profit and the application link is below. Application deadline is August 28. https://www.techstars.com/newsroom/now-accepting-nonprofit-applications-for-the-techstars-workforce-development https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSe2g4jeJuV10_oL-f0xKtAcdVOcZGvxTdtIh5LDqtg7KQyGUw/viewform Taylor's Social Media Taylor's Twitter: @taylormclemore Taylor's Website: https://www.taylormclemore.com/ Workforce Podcast: https://www.theworkforcepodcast.com/ Taylor's Advice One thing that I've been really trying to embrace, it's actually one of the values of TechStars. Which is quality over quantity. I feel like we live in a world dominated by quantity. If it's a digital world, we could spin that up to a million people, or 100 million people. I really am excited to focus on things where you can start with how do I drive quality. Quality of experience in what I'm building for one user or one client?  How do I think about how I'm spending my time instead of putting in a bunch of time and then am I thinking about the quality of it? Because in my experience, it's really hard to reverse engineer that after the fact. It's really hard to figure out quality after you've started. When you start with quality and you stay dedicated to quality. You can scale with quality. I've been thinking a lot about that. I would just share that idea for people to think about how it might apply to what they're doing in their lives and how they're investing their time. So hopefully that idea resonates. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Today's guest is David Mandell, a multi-time entrepreneur, startup sage, and a managing partner at VentureVoodoo partners, a consulting firm specializing in CEO and Leadership Coaching.We've spent the last 6 episodes delving into the big picture of mission-driven entrepreneurship, and in this episode we get super tactical. David breaks down for us some of the issues faced when creating something from nothing. We talk about the 3 jobs of a CEO, how to hire the absolute best people, what he did when his company had raised $25M and still wasn't making money, doing due diligence on investors, and the mourning period that follows most startup adventures. This episode is a must listen for anyone who currently runs a growing company, or wants to create one. David has been in the startup trenches for decades and has tons and tons of real world experience to share that I wish I'd had when I was starting Kindara. I'm going to give this episode to all my coaching clients it's so good (and listen again myself before I start my next company). More on David's background: David was an Entrepreneur in Residence for Techstars, and Co-founder and CEO of PivotDesk, a TechStars Boulder 2012 company that helps find room for growing businesses. Having served as a TechStars mentor since the start, he has entrepreneurial experience that runs the spectrum from small, start-up organizations to large multi-national corporations.Previously, David served as CEO of Ignighter (currently StepOut), another TechStars Boulder company and was a Co-founder and Vice President of Marketing for OneRiot (Previously named Me.dium).Before making the transition to startup life, David was the first marketing hire and Managing Director, Global Communications for Deloitte Consulting. At Deloitte, David helped lead and manage the global brand launch and communications strategy following Deloitte Consulting’s separation from Deloitte & Touche. The comparative strategy succeeded in distinguishing the brand from its competitors and facilitated the company’s rise to one of the top-three brands in the industry.David also served as EVP, GM for Cohn & Wolfe, a NY-based marketing and communications agency. While at Cohn & Wolfe, David managed several large marketing campaigns, including the introduction of BMW NA’s Z3 Roadster in conjunction with the MGM and the James Bond 007 Movie, Golden EyeShow Notes:0:42 David introduces himself and what he does.1:22 How do you keep the agency model going and profitable?6:00 David tells the story of his “6 year death march” launching Deloitte’s global consulting practice 7:00 David describes what it was like in 1999 launching a startup as the dotcom bubble burst9:40 David tells the story of Medium – an early internet company he founded the dealt with real-time mapping of the internet based on activity for which he raised a $5m seed round 18:00 what he did when Medium raised $25M but still had no revenue22:30 why it’s never a good idea to lie to your board, or even omit information, and how and why to keep a good relationship with your board. 

Today's guest is Fletcher Richman, CEO & Cofounder of Halp, a company backed by Techstars and Slack that makes an internal helpdesk to streamline workflows for the teams at Adobe, HomeDepot, SeatGeek, and hundreds of other companies.Fletcher also helped found the Seed Angel Forum, an investor forum for early stage entrepreneurs and investors, and is a partner at Kokopelli Ventures, a micro venture fund in Boulder CO. In our conversation we explore Fletchers path into the world of business and creating things and his experience running a social impact venture (Spark).Fletcher received a Bachelor of Science in Electrical & Computer Engineering, Cum Laude, from The University of Colorado. As a student, Fletcher co-founded Spark Boulder, a co-working space for student entrepreneurs, which was supported by many community leaders, including Brad Feld and David Cohen, the Co-Founders of Techstars. Fletcher spent several years working as the Growth Engineer for PivotDesk, a Techstars Boulder graduate, and as the Platform Manager for Galvanize Ventures, a seed-stage venture capital fund. Fletcher's Blog: http://fletcher.io/Fletcher on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/fletchrichman/Fletcher on Medium: https://medium.com/@fletchrichmanFletcher's company Halp: https://www.halp.com/The Seed Angel Forum: https://seedangel.co/Kokopelli Ventures: https://kokopelli.vc/Watson Institute: https://watson.is/Twitter: @FletcherRichmanShow Notes:2:58 Fletcher tells his story and the story of his first startup - yelp for college campuses.11:10 Fletchers strategy to get into the startup world - just test out startups products and send them feedback12:00 His first internship at PivotDesk and his beginnings in web development13:00 How he built a sales robot at PivotDesk and built the intern team14:00 The beginnings of Spark, the social impact co-working space he founded almost by accident to connect Boulder's University community with the Boulder tech ecosystem.17:00 Fletcher tells me about his first deck and fundraise for Spark Boulder and why they went with a non-profit structure17:30 The "Boulder Creek Divide" and how Spark Boulder was created to address it 20:53 Fletcher tells me about raising money and using the "sales robot" to reach out to the Boulder tech scene. 27:00 Fletcher tells me about his experience running accelerator programs out of Spark. 29:00 How the Boulder Denver tech scene works as a "doer-ocracy" 31:40 Fletchers thoughts on social entrepreneurship, Watson University, and the box of social impact entrepreneurship. 35:30 How it can hurt entrepreneurs to label themselves social impact entrepreneurs38:19 Do you think it's harder to build a social impact company than any other company?41:00 Fletchers "Elon Musk" strategy to learn how to build vanilla companies first, and then use his experience and resources to tackle harder problems41:50 Fletcher tal

Julie Penner on the MindMill Podcast Julie Penner is the former director of the famed Techstars business accelerator program.  She has worked with hundreds of diverse companies; challenging, empowering, and propelling them into new arenas of success.  Julie now works as COO of Halp. This episode is with Julie Penner (@soulofstartups), former director of the famed Techstars business accelerator program in Boulder Colorado.  She has worked with hundreds of diverse companies; challenging, empowering, exposing, and propelling them into new arenas of success.  Despite the endless metrics and data-points of analysis, Julie maintains that its always human development that governs the success of a company.  The Techstars accelerator has expanded to over a hundred global programs, but started in Boulder.  There are few people who have the collective knowledge and experience Julie possesses.  Julie now works as COO of Halp. Julie is one of those people who I immediately felt connected to.  She has incredibly demanding schedules and responsibilities, yet I have never had an interaction with her where she has come off rushed, uninterested, or not present.  This interview was much different than i expected.  I had prepared a series of analytical questions surrounding startups, founders, and processes.  While we touch on these topics,  the resounding theme of our conversation is on intentional self-growth and genuine connection.  We discuss the emotional challenges that founders face, embracing humanity to propel teams, the power of self-reflection, and strength through vulnerability.  We also touch on intentional ways to celebrate holidays, the Burning Man festival , and the Danish lifestyle of Hygge.  Julie is a fantastic individual, i learn so much from her every time we speak.  Im proud to share this conversation with Julie Penner on the  MindMill podcast.    https://youtu.be/HVULp7oG0Dw SHOWNOTES ABOUT JULIE PENNER BIO From Linked in I am currently the COO at Halp. Before Halp, I worked as Director at Techstars Boulder, investing and working with 60+ early-stage companies. Prior to Techstars, I worked as VP of Operations for Graphicly, an automated ebooks conversion and distribution platform. I managed a team of eight employees and contractors. My responsibilities included process improvement, weekly cash management and forecasting, contract management and negotiation, metrics tracking, HR and other non-product/sales functions. Prior to that, I worked as a corporate development analyst at Liberty Media. My work involved industry and company-specific research, strategy development, technology trend tracking, and valuation support. I graduated with an JD/MBA from University of Colorado focusing on entrepreneurship and technology in both the law school and the business school, graduating top third in my class with an entrepreneurial law certificate. Prior work also includes internships at SRS, a company that manages escrows and holdbacks in VC-backed M&A deals, Lijit (now Sovrn), a Boulder-based VC-backed startup and interning at the CU Tech Transfer Office. I also worked at Zeo, a Boston-based VC-backed startup that developed a consumer product. Specialties: consumer web, ebooks, eCommerce, strategy, social media, digital media, social commerce, entrepreneurship, start-ups, broadband, financial modeling, valuation analysis, market analysis. CONTACT JULIE Linked InEmailHalp WebsiteInstagram THE FEELING WHEEL Full Transcript Julie Penner | People over Product, Process, and Profit Intro: Welcome to the MindMill Podcast, where host, Seth Marcus dissect and discusses all things impacting young adults. Peers, mentors and professional share intimate conversations on subjects such as entrepreneurship, exercise and health, music and art, the blessings and curses of technology, travel, and how to navigate adulthood in this age of information.

An early fascination with Google Adwords and analytics at the age of 18, lead me to start Data Nerds in early 2014. We have dabbled in digital marketing and optimization in several domains albeit real estate had us hooked. Our first product was a Carfax for Homes which landed us in the prestigious Techstars Boulder 2017 program. Fast forward less than a year and we are now backed by Foundry Group and Techstars Ventures. We are primarily focused on bringing transparency, accuracy, and education to the vast and segmented real estate industry.

Alex Canter was born with a stainless steel spoon in his mouth, and on that spoon was a really excellent matzoh ball. Alex is among the fourth generation of Canter family members who learned about business early by working at the 87-old deli institution in Los Angeles. Canter's Deli is a Jewish-style restaurant that has been open 24 hours a day for the last 87 years. There is no lock on the door. When Alex began working at the restaurant, he saw that online ordering and food delivery were becoming a major part of the future opportunity for the business. Walk-in customers were down, and Alex wanted Canter's to triumph in this new age. He signed up for nine ordering services and saw the impact of the new revenue stream. He also saw the perils, with separate, non-integrated tablets behind the counter for Seamless, Grubhub, Uber Eats, and more. Orders were being lost, customers were having to wait when they arrived to pick up their food, the staff was confused. In this chaos, Alex Canter saw an opportunity to bring the more than 175 online ordering companies into a single point of sale system that could communicate with the front of house and back of house and fulfill the customer promise of hot food served seamlessly. Ordermark was born, allowing Canter's and thousands of other restaurant partners to manage all online ordering partner companies from a single device. In this episode of the Real Leader's podcast with Sue Heilbronner, hear Alex's story of growing up in an old-school restaurant family and bringing his gifts of vision and technical acumen to the table to create true innovation in the sector. Ordermark has raised in excess of $3 million to date and is part of the Techstars Boulder 2018 class. Learn more about Alex and how to get Ordermark at your restaurant at www.ordermark.com.

Julie Penner (a Managing Director of Techstars Boulder who read 100 books this year) chats about the loop between lean processes + leadership, the power of vulnerability-based trust, and “building your company from the inside out”. Enjoy! Support me on Patreon! www.patreon.com/rhyslindmark Thanks to Shapeshift for sponsoring the show! https://shapeshift.io Thanks to Mike Goldin, John Desmond, Colin Wielga, Harry Lindmark, Joe Urgo, John Lindmark, Daniel Segal, Jacob Zax, Katie Powell, Jonathan Isaac, Brady McKenna, Jeff Snyder, Ryan X Charles, Chris Edmonds, Ned Mills, Kenji Williams, Scott Levi, Peter Rodgers, Keith Klundt, Andrew O’Neill, and Kenzie Jacobs for supporting me on Patreon!

Amy‘s dating app, MeetMindful, has almost 1 million members. It is one of the fastest growing dating sites in the world, and is connecting like-minded singles interested in mindful living, health and wellness, and personal growth (unlike the typical swipe dating apps).   Based in Denver, MeetMindful is a Techstars Boulder alumni, has grown to 16 employees, and has raised $3.7 million in capital from top investors, and world-renowned mindfulness teacher, Tara Brach.   Amy's journey towards mindful living started after years of growing early-stage startups in New York. She wanted to put that same ambition and drive inwards towards herself, so she quit her job, sold all her possessions, and bought a one-way ticket to travel through India, Thailand, Bali, and Cambodia for an entire year to expand her mind, body, and spirit.   Attend my one-day conference January 27th in Pittsburgh.   Amy’s Challenge; Look up and start paying attention to the world around you. See if it makes you feel more connected to the world around you.   Books The Big Leap by Gay Hendricks Lean Startup by Eric Ries The 4-Hour Workweek by Tim Ferriss Feminine Genius by LiYana Silver Mating in Captivity & The State of Affairs by Esther Perel Come As You Are by The 15 Commitments of Conscious Leadership: A New Paradigm for Sustainable Success by Jim Dethmer & Diana Chapman   Connect with Amy 2-Day Free Trial   If you liked this interview, check out my other top episodes.

Todd Saunders is the CEO at AdHawk, a digital advertising software that aggregates and optimizes digital ad data to take the complexity out of digital advertising. AdHawk is a graduate of Techstars Boulder in 2015. Before taking the startup plunge, Todd worked on the AdWords team at Google, where he helped high growth startups and small businesses with their digital advertising strategies. He is an expert at optimizing advertising accounts and improving ROI. Todd is also a contributor at Search Engine Land. The topics discussed in this episode include why you should hire a specialist to execute on your digital marketing, the additional, secondary benefits of direct response, and a discussion how voice search will affect the future of AdWords.

Nathan Bashaw is the Co-founder & CEO of Hardbound. After discovering the world of startups during college, and driven by the desire to build things and implement his own ideas, Nathan became a self-taught developer. He knew pretty early on, that he wanted to leverage technology to create new forms of education and storytelling that was native to new devices like smartphones. After joining Olark as an intern and then working in San Francisco as a full time developer, Nathan decided to pursue his own project - Scratchpad. It was later acquired by General Assembly, where Nathan worked as a Product Manager. While in San Francisco, Nathan met Ryan Hoover and helped him create the first version of what would become Product Hunt. Nathan then decided to focus on pursuing his vision for what would become Hardbound. He and the team recently completed the Techstars Boulder program, raised some funding, and have released a completely new version of the app. Nathan joins us to share his story, some of the biggest challenges he faced in becoming a Product Manager, why he’s so passionate about new forms of education and storytelling, what it’s been like building Hardbound, some of the biggest challenges they had to overcome, what it’s like raising money, what it was like going through Techstars in Boulder, and much more.

Mentoring has become a ubiquitous "should." You should be a mentor. You should have mentors. You should listen to the insights of your terrific mentors. This is certainly the byword in the startup world, and fantastic accelerators like Techstars are "mentor-driven" specifically nodding to the value that a diverse and engaged team of mentors can provide to an early-stage company. So if you're outside of this world and want to hear more about what a real-life mentor deep dive with a startup sounds like, this podcast is for you. If you're inside this world and want to hear what a mentor meeting sounds like with Techstars Boulder company Monday, here's your chance. This intimate conversations covers the usual business dynamics of the company and touches on the personal dynamics of the founders. Actually all of that counts as critical "business" dynamics. Evan Walden and Raul San Narcisso are the founders of Monday, at JoinMonday.com. Monday wants to connect engaged people with jobs they love, and as you'll hear, they're well on their way.

Nicole Glaros recently became Chief Innovation Officer of Techstars. In taking this role after serving as Managing Director of Techstars Boulder (the original Techstars accelerator) for years and the company's Chief Product Officer, she shed most of her direct reports because managing people wasn't her deepest passion. Nicole may be the most gifted mentor and coach for startup founders in the world. She's smart, funny, fast and fiercely committed to growing great founder leaders. In this Real Leaders podcast, Nicole also offers a real-time example of self-awareness, something she deems a critical feature of a founder worthy of investment. Nicole shares the backstory for her independent streak and discusses the downside of her extraordinary personal strength. This episode is a great example of a "real" leader, something Nicole lives and breathes daily.

Twenty-four year old Devon Tivona is the Co-founder and CEO of Pana, an on-demand travel agent software service that blends technology and real humans for ultimate ease in traveling. Devon is a rare mix of tech and EQ, getting energy from making human connections as well solving complex technical problems. These qualities have not only helped him launch a successful, well-designed and highly engaging app, but he has also garnered real loyalty his investors and advisors. He recognizes the value of this circle: "In order for a concept to be successful, you have to have this inner circle of people who are obsessed with your product."  Growing up Devon dreamed of attending Stanford. Although he was accepted there, he chose to attend the University of Colorado in Boulder, where he was offered a full merit scholarship. It was outside the classroom, however, where Devon found cohorts of like-minded people in the startup community. He founded Pana with classmates, won the University’s prestigious New Venture Challenge, and the company was accepted to Techstars Boulder upon his graduation. When talking about his experience in creating and maintaining a tight team, he believes that candor and transparency are the two greatest lessons he and his co-founders have learned. When it comes to vetting new ideas, the Pana team keeps its process open. "We have an idea, and we have a gut about it and we give the freedom to say 'Great. Build a hypothesis and go test it.'" Find out how this young entrepreneur won his company the backing of Techstars Ventures, The Foundry Group, Galvanize, Flight VC and a host of angel investors through his raw talent, obsession with learning, excitement and authenticity. 

“It’s more than a business,” shared Jacqueline Ros, founder and CEO of Revolar, a Denver, Colorado based personal safety wearable tech company. “It’s a movement. A movement of people taking back their lives; people living their lives without worrying about what they are wearing, where they are going, or what time they’re going out. We use empowerment and not fear. That’s the entire point of Revolar.” - Via Amysmartgirls As the CEO and founder of Revolar, Jacqueline has always held a passion for social issues. Jacqueline founded Revolar to disrupt rape culture and change the way people keep themselves and those they love safe. At the helm of Revolar, Jacqueline and her team ran a successful Kickstarter campaign, did the Techstars Boulder 2015 accelerator program, made the Top 25 for Sir Richard Branson’s Extreme Tech Challenge and most recently closed a $3 million financing round with The Foundry Group. Jacqueline is a Florida native, but moved to Denver, CO three years ago to build Revolar where she enjoys rock climbing, volunteering and spending time with her family. In this episode, Jacqueline tell us all about her journey to becoming a successful tech rockstar and overcoming the huge learning curve and challenges on her ascent to the top! Our favorite part about her project? Her commitment to the movement of women empowerment! Here's one of our favorite statements from her: "Everything is about positive relationships and building authentic relationships with people who know what it takes to make this happen, and it's been really incredible to have that support  in our community."

What happens when one of the most renowned startup accelerators in the world infuses Lean Startup methodology? Zach Nies, Managing Director at Techstars Boulder program http://www.techstars.com/programs/boulder-program/, joins Heather McGough of Lean Startup Company to discuss how they're helping entrepreneurs, use Lean Startup thinking to overcome challenges. Zach shares what techniques large organizations can learn from an accelerator and more. Zach Nies can be reached on Twitter @zachnies Heather McGough can be reached on Twitter @UrbanitySF Follow Lean Startup Co. @leanstartup

Ryan Orbuch’s not your ordinary teenage kid. Ryan built Finish, an iPhone app used over a million times. It is known as "the to-do list for procrastinators” and was featured #1 in productivity in the app store.  After he received an Apple Design Award in 2013, it was covered on New York Times, TechCrunch, Forbes, CNET, The Huffington Post, and more. Ryan was also featured on Bloomberg TV and Fox News. Ryan gave a TED Talk and was hired at Techstars Boulder. He is also deeply passionate about education reform. This week we get into his mind a bit and get to know what makes him tick and what gets him excited.

Royce Haynes is a Facilitator for Startup Weekend in Denver and a former Hackstar with Techstars Boulder. He is currently working as a Senior Software Developer with Pearson North America and pursuing an MS in Computer Science at The University of Colorado Boulder. We spoke with him about his journey from Kansas to Boulder, new projects, and his work with the Risingstars program. I have this expectation to be a successful entrepreneur. I don’t know how, when, or where. I think it is engrained in me. It also comes from my family....read more